TV presenter Jackie Bird thanks parents for being her 'rock' as she battled serious illness

THE Scots newsreader required emergency operations after suffering a twisted bowel and insists her parents were instrumental in helping her pull through while she thanked the surgeons for saving her life.

Jackie Bird told yesterday how her mum and dad helped her through her life-threatening illness.

The 50-year-old BBC Scotland anchorwoman is recovering from two major operations after suffering a twisted bowel.

And she said her mum Linda and dad Ronnie have been a rock through her ordeal.

The Reporting Scotland host and Sunday Mail columnist said: “They have been coming round every day and making sure I eat and rest.”

Mum-of-two Jackie, who is married to investment manager Robin Weir, recalled coming round from her first emergency operation.

She added: “I must have looked dreadful and will never forget my mum and dad’s faces when they saw me for the first time.

“My family have been brilliant and my friends have also kept me going, as have dozens of folk I don’t know, who have sent me cards and get well wishes.”

Jackie collapsed with agonising stomach pains five weeks ago. Doctors at Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride said she could have died within hours without emergency surgery.

Speaking for the first time about her ordeal in our sister paper the Sunday Mail, Jackie revealed how she was so ill that doctors told her family to come to her bedside and prepare to say their final farewells.

Jackie, from Busby, near Glasgow, also hailed the surgeons and medical teams for saving her life.

She said: “It all seems like a horrible dream. It’s only beginning to hit me now that by rights, I shouldn’t be here.

“After the first surgery, doctors told me I was just three hours from death and after the second, my husband revealed he had been asked to gather the family to say their final goodbyes. It’s all quite frightening.

“It’s been quite a year. I certainly didn’t think bringing in 2012 on the Hogmanay show, that it might be my last.

“Christmas this year will be extra special and I will be savouring every minute of 2013.

“I have been given two second chances and I’m going to use them.”

Despite being at death’s door twice, Jackie still plays down her ordeal.

She said: “Compared to what other people are going through, what has happened to me is nothing.

“I’m not having to live with cancer. Hopefully, this was just a blip.”